There is no denying the fact that links are imperative when it comes to ranking your website on the SERPs. But what about anchor link text?
Hands down, anchor links can either make or break your site. If done right your website will appear on top in SERPs. If you miss the mark, you risk having your website penalized!
Surprisingly, a lot of writers and even search engine optimization experts choose this anchor text on a whim. As if it’s that simple—or not important enough to be chosen strategically.
If you have been doing it wrong for all these years, now is the time to learn the best practices. Or else it won’t benefit your authority on Google as it should.
But before we move to the best anchor text optimization practices, let’s enlighten you on the importance of anchor text on your website.
Why Is Anchor Text Important?
As a monthly SEO services company in the USA, we understand the importance anchor texts hold in any piece of content. It provides Google with the context of the content, thus making it easier for its algorithm to understand what it is about. A web visitor too can guess what they will see upon clicking on the link.
Say your anchor text is not relevant. The referenced content doesn’t make sense at all, leaving the user in ambiguity. And they go back without wasting further time. This counts as a bad user experience and is likely to result in a loss of credibility on Google.
However, if the anchor text is relevant and provides exactly the information a user is looking for, your traffic and engagement will improve. The search engine crawlers will take it as a positive sign when a single user on your website ends up visiting multiple pages and spending a significant time on each page.
Fact:
Results on page one of Google will get 95% of the clicks. Specifically, the first page SEO guarantee result will receive 32.5%, the second one will see 17.6%, and the seventh will see 3.5%.
How Many Types of Anchor Texts are There?
To optimize your anchor text, you must understand the various types of anchor texts you will be creating.
1. Exact Match Anchor Text
When you choose a complete keyword as the anchor text, it’s called the exact match anchor text. This is the most common type of anchor text, particularly used when two websites exchange backlinks.
You can also use it while linking internal pages. For example, if you are writing a blog post on “Best SEO Services in the USA” and you have a page named “SEO Services”, you can use “SEO Services” in the content as the anchor text to link the two pages.
Note: Be careful while using exact matches. Its overuse can lead to a penalty by Google.
2. Partial Match Anchor Text
As the name suggests, partial match anchor texts contain your main keyword accompanied by a couple of other words. For example, instead of anchoring “SEO Company,” you may anchor “meet our SEO company” somewhere in the content.
Our local SEO agency in the USA uses this practice to include target keywords without coming across as spammy.
3. Branded Anchor Text
Branded anchor text means using the brand’s name in the anchor text. This promotes brand authority. This is safe and signals to Google that you’re pointing toward a trustworthy brand or product.
For example, while writing a detailed post on “Local SEO company audit,” if I anchor the text “get free SEO audit from Digital Gravity Agency”, it will be counted as a branded anchor text.
4. Naked Anchor Text
We don’t recommend this type of anchor text to any of our clients. Here’s why, have a look at one of the examples of the naked anchor text: “according to Statista, 90% of Americans have access to the internet”.
This type of anchor text would never look good on any screen. At a glance, you can’t understand what the text is about. However, it is still recognized as one of the types of anchor texts being used on the web.
5. Generic Anchor Text
A generic anchor text is a text you often see at the end of a blog post, or when you abruptly include another post’s link somewhere in the middle of a post.
Texts like “Read this” and “Read more” are the two common examples of generic anchor text.
However, talking from a digital marketer’s perspective, this isn’t a great practice. Too many generic anchor texts feel boring and are less likely to pull in an ordinary reader who is already grappling with several other distractions.
How to Optimize Your Anchor Text for Higher SERP Rankings?
As the first page SEO guarantee company in the USA, we have put down some proven anchor text optimization practices. Follow these to make your content SEO as well as human-friendly.
1. Don’t Mislead People
The most important anchor text optimization tip is to stay relevant and true to your promise.
Say you are anchoring the text “best SEO company,” the link shouldn’t take the visitor to an insecure website apparently managed by a bunch of scammers.
Likewise, if you are linking internal pages, make sure the anchor text clearly tells what the page is about or else it will take just another click for your prospect to leave your website.
2. Treat it as Your Headline When Appropriate
You want more people to click on the link. So why not apply the best headline writing practices to it? In the same way, you write a headline for your ad copy, you can craft relevant yet interesting anchor text.
A powerful headline will tempt more people to click on the text. And if the content inside it is relevant and useful, they will trust your website as an authentic source to discover more on the same topic.
3. Add Keyword Variations without Breaking the Natural Flow
A good writer can make keywords sound natural in any content. Make sure you add your primary keywords in the anchor text but without breaking the natural flow.
Stick to one keyword, and add supporting ones when they fit in naturally.
Here’s an example: “SEO services by a local SEO agency”.
4. Consider the Search Intent
Make sure you anchor the text that people are searching for. For example, if you are targeting people searching “best SEO services in the USA” and you anchor “SEO services”, this kind of anchor text will help you rank against the hot search queries.
But if you overdo it, or mislead people to the conversion page before nurturing them, they will bounce back to the Google search where they have other relevant options to find the information they were looking for.
5. Test & Find the Best Anchor Texts on Your Website
Lastly, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. You must experiment and dig out the best-performing anchor text structures. Track the user journey and see how visitors behave and what kind of anchor text is pulling in more visitors from another page.
Final Words
The anchor texts on your website might be the most underestimated part of your SEO strategy to this date. But not from today. You must not create these on a whim or without a concrete plan. Follow the best practices, experiment with various types of anchor texts, and stick to the one that boosts your SEO game.